


Unspoken

by Syrum



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Love, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Pregnancy, Romance, Unrequited Love, finding happiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 10:35:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11872551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrum/pseuds/Syrum
Summary: Neither one of them loved the other.  At least, not to start with.  It's strange how time, and circumstances, changes these things.





	Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

> I have had a very, very long hiatus from writing. Lots and lots of things have happened to keep me away (minor op, bought a house, I HAVE A DOGGO NOW!!!!) but I'm trying to pick up where I left off.
> 
> Nope, I'm not shifting fandom, Naruto is just rather easy to write when you're out of practice :)

“I’m home.” She greets him with a smile as she always does, soft and warm, her depthless blue eyes softening into an expression scant few of her friends ever witness. Only those she truly cares for, truly loves, and he feels blessed to be on the receiving end of it each and every time. She’s beautiful, he supposes. He’s tried to paint her a few times, though she struggles to sit still for so long what with a house to look after and a florists to run. Still, she is an excellent muse and nothing else he has painted stands up to the beauty of his portraits of her.

“Welcome home. How was the mission?” The swell of her belly beneath still too-revealing clothing is larger than it had been when he left, and he cannot help the way his own stomach clenches slightly at the sight; part in wonder that there is something of _their_ creation growing within, and partly at the idea of bringing some new life into being when he scarcely felt as though he had reached adulthood yet himself.

She had laughed at him, once, when he had admitted as such. Said that, if that was the case, she would have to be adult enough for the both of them.

“Standard retrieval mission, nothing out of the ordinary.” He would share the details, if she asked, but he knows she won’t. It isn’t her business, just as her own missions are never his. They don’t talk about work inside the house; it’s better that way.

“I’m glad you’re home safe.” He almost apologises, there and then as she presses a kiss to his cheek, for not being the person she had hoped would return home to her. He stills his tongue, though, knows it would only cause upset - he might still be learning in many ways, but this was a lesson he would not soon forget.

_If I didn’t want you here, do you honestly think I’d let you through the door?_

She had cried, he had apologised until his throat was raw. That may have been the night the child was conceived, he’s not certain, and is not sure if he really wants to know.

She loves him, in her own way. He isn’t Sasuke, and yet she loves him anyway, and he is forever grateful to her for it. He doesn’t mind being second best, when she smiles at him like that. He knows that her eye wanders, that she watches the tragic heir to the Uchiha family with such intensity whenever he passes that it is enough to take Sai’s breath away even from the outside looking in. He doesn’t mind, doesn’t blame her. Doesn’t wish that expression for himself, as he doesn’t know what he would do with it.

He has had to remind her, on occasion, to be less obvious about it though - while he might not mind, might not blame her, others would.

He would defend her on this to his dying breath.

He loves her, in his own way. She isn’t Naruto, has all of the fiery personality yet none of the spark, none of the raging inferno that seems to engulf the blonde Hokage and threatens to consume all who get too close. Sai isn’t sure he would mind the sensation of those flames destroying him from the inside out. He watches, barb-wrapped longing hidden behind a smile and the arc of partly-closed lids, his expression remaining mostly neutral and emotions, _feelings_ , subtly shuttered.

Ino knows, and yet she says nothing on the matter. The gentle squeeze of her hand around his palm, the nudge of shoulders in the subtle reminder of _I’m here for you still, it’s okay_. He isn’t sure how well he would have coped, internally, without her at his side.

She’s chopping vegetables beside the sink when he approaches, wrapping her in a gentle hug from behind and breathing in her familiar scent for a moment. He does not need to see her smile to know it’s there; the pause of the knife and the slight dip of her shoulder as she relaxes against him enough to speak innumerable volumes.

They were brought together by their mutual misery. It was their strength and support for one another, as a couple, that kept them that way.

He does not need to tell her _I love you_ aloud to hear her quiet, unspoken reply of _I love you too._


End file.
